The Szeszulski Agency believes it is important to be prepared for every situation, which is why we stress the importance of being properly covered. To give a little extra guidance, we want to provide you with some home safety tips.
Fire Safety
With a little more time, advanced planning, and some common sense, you can prevent many situations that lead to house fires.
Fireplace Safety
An easy way to prevent a fire is to keep a screen in front of the fireplace. Place nonflammable flooring, such as rock, in front if it. It is important to have the chimney inspected once a year and cleaned. The best wood to burn is dry, seasoned hard wood. Also, do not place furniture to close too the fire place.
Furnace Safety
You should have your furnace serviced once a year. Change the filter monthly during heating season. If you have an older furnace, consider buying a carbon monoxide detector.
Hot Water Heater
You should have your hot water heater checked occasionally by a reliable technician. Look for leaks or black carbon build-up in the burner.
Electrical Wiring
If you have recently purchased a home older than 15 years, the wiring system may not be able to handle the requirements of the typical electronic equipment found in today’s households. Homeowners with multiple computers, printers, televisions, VCR and/or DVD players, etc., need to have the wiring load capacity evaluated by a reliable technician.
If you plan to install window air conditioners in an older home, be aware that they require 220 wiring. If there isn’t such a plug near the location you plan to use, have on installed by a qualified electrician. The same goes for clothes dryers and electric rangers. Do not try to boost the power of the outlets by using oversized fuses in the fuse box. That is one sure way to cause a fire. Likewise, do not use a copper penny instead of a fuse.
Keep an eye on older wiring. Over time, it can become soft, eventually cracking, and cause connections to loosen or break. If you know a house has had rodents in the past, check the wiring for chewed places.
Circuits
Make sure the number of circuits your home has is adequate to the electrical demands of the household. If not adequate, you should have more installed by a qualified electrician.
Flammable fluids, aerosols, and substances with harmful vapors
Store away from heat sources, pilot lights, and hot light bulbs, in a place where temperature is consistently moderate. If you are indoors using a substance that emits harmful vapors, such as epoxies, spray paint, or sealers, be sure to open the windows and the doors. If you begin to feel faint, short of breath, or dizzy, GET OUT IMMEDIATELY.
Smoking
Firefighting experts say that many house fires are caused by carelessness with lighted cigarettes. Smokers must realize that even though a burning cigarette is removed from sofa cushions after being accidentally dropped, the ash or burned fabric can smolder for hours afterwards. It is vitally important to pull the cushions off the sofa to check for such circumstances.
The following precautions will avert disasters with smoking materials:
- Never smoke near flammable liquids or aerosols. It is the fumes from such liquids that ignite, not the fluids themselves. There is no such thing as smoking cautiously while filling the lawn mower with gasoline or spray painting a frame.
- Never ever smoke in bed. Sleep may overpower you in spite of the late- night movie you are watching. Bedclothes and mattresses emit masses of smoke that will kill you before the flames ever catch. Instead, sit upright in a chair next to an ashtray.
- Do not empty ashtrays into trash. It is important to make sure all ashes are cold before emptying the contents into a trash can.
In the Kitchen
1. Clothing. When cooking, wear clothes that will minimize the chance of catching fire. Fuzzy sweaters, like angora, will catch and burn much more quickly than a smooth fabric without even actually touching the burner. In additions to the fire hazard, dropping or flowing sleeves can catch pan handles. Proper clothing is especially important when allowing little or aged hands to help in the kitchen.
2. Grease fires. The idea is to cut off oxygen. Extinguish with BAKING SODA to smother the flames. DO NOT use flour, salt, or baking powder. Not only will they burn, but they also could explode. NEVER throw water on a grease fire. It scatters the oil, thus spreading the fire. If the contents of the pan are on fire, quickly slide on a tight-fitting lid. Turn the burner off.
3. If food starts to flame in the oven, turn it off immediately, but DON”T open the door. There isn’t much air inside an oven, so the fire will burn itself out quickly.
4. Fire Extinguishers. It is wise to keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Extinguishers are rated with letters (ABC) to tell the user what kind of fire it is effective on. For that reason, fires are divided into three basic classics, depending on the source of the fire.
Class A- ordinary combustibles such as wood, cloth, paper, rubber, and many kinds of plastic.
Class B- flammable liquids such as gasoline, oil, grease, tar, oil based paint, and lacquer.
Class C- energized electrical equipment, including wiring, fuse box, circuit breakers, machinery, and appliances.
5. All extinguishers are labeled using standard symbols for the classes of fires they are effective against. A red slash through any of the letters means that the extinguisher can’t be used on that class of fire.
6. For general house hold purposes, such as for placement in the kitchen, an extinguisher labeled ABC is fine.
7. The rating for size is expressed as a number from 1 to 40 for Class A fires, and from 1 to 640 for Class B fires. The larger the number, the larger the fire the extinguisher can put out. However, the higher the rating, the heavier the extinguisher gets. Make sure you can manage to hold and operate it properly before buying.
Prepare for a fire. You and the other responsible people in the house who will be using the extinguisher need to read the instruction manual. You won’t have the time after the fire starts!
Installation. Place your extinguisher in plain view, where you can get to it easily, but out of the reach of children. Preferably, it should be near an escape route, away from stoves and heating appliances. Your local fire department can suggest the best locations.
It is important to be prepared for hazardous events that could occur at your home. With these simple suggestions from the Szeszulski Agency, you can greatly increase the safety of your family and home.
